Remembering Casper
by M.L. Widmann
Summary: A look into Professor McGonagall's life that no one really got the chance to catch a glimpse of.


**Disclaimer: **JKR may own all of the incredible back-stories in Harry Potter, but I own this one.

Remembering Casper

"What d'you reckon's wrong with her?" Ron asked as he, Harry and Hermione stared curiously at their Transfiguration professor.

Harry shrugged. "Dunno, mate," he whispered hoarsely.

"You know," Hermione pointedly whispered back. "Teachers are witches and wizard too. Maybe she's just going through a hard time."

Professor McGonagall did not acknowledge the three eleven-year-olds ignoring their assignment to focus on a more interesting topic. She was seemingly transfixed on the tip of her quill, watching as the lack of balance caused it to sway up and down between her brittle fingers. A preoccupied teenager is what she resembled, and she sure felt like one at the moment. Her mind was concentrated on the first man she met that could make her eyes light up...

His image when they first met was flawless in her memory: a boy of fourteen, the same age she had been, with a mop of messy, dirty blonde hair, bright blue eyes and the most amazing smile she'd ever seen. Her long, black hair had split ends and her face was covered in blemishes – a visage that couldn't even compare.

She was reaching for a book on the library shelf but couldn't quite get it down; standing on her tiptoes and stretching her arm directly upward wasn't doing much good. Somehow she nudged the massive volume ad it came plummeting downward. Preparing herself for the forceful impact, she ducked, but it never came. She cautiously looked up to see the book floating just above her head.

"Bloody hell, are you alright?" He asked as he put his wand back in his pocket.

"Yes, yes I'm fine." She panted and grabbed the book. "Thank you."

"I don't believe we've met; I'm Casper, by the way, Casper McGonagall." For the first time she looked him in the eye.

"Minerva Shaw." She nodded, her cheeks instantly turning red.

"Pleasure." Smiling, Casper caught her green irises with his aqua blue ones. "Minerva, I don't want this to sound too rash, but would you want to come to Hogsmeade with me this weekend for lunch?"

At the time, the only thing she thought they had in common was their Gryffindor robes. Casper appeared much too good for a simple bookworm like Minerva. It took a good week and a half for the pair of them to become inseparable, and within the month, they were absolutely crazy about each other. The summer after they'd graduated from Hogwarts, Minerva had been invited to spend a few weeks with Casper. It was a warm, breezy afternoon as they lay under a leafy branch next to the lake. Her tiny figure was wrapped in Casper's strong grip, both of them watching the ripples of the wind in the water.

"I love you, Casper," she said, looking deeply into his blue eyes, which were slightly covered by his blonde locks falling into his face.

He delicately pushed her black waves behind her ears and smiled. "I love you too, Minerva."

She giggled and perked up. "Say, do you remember when we met?"

"Of course."

"I just can't believe something so unexpected could lead to something so perfect."

"It is so perfect, isn't it?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the vast lake before them. As he felt her nodding her head against his chest, Casper cupped Minerva's chin and brought her lips tenderly to his own. "I wish we could stay this way forever."

So did she – and things seemed to be progressing that way. A few years later, Casper and Minerva went to a fancy restaurant for Valentine's Day, where he went down on one knee and asked her hand in marriage, which she could not refuse.

The day of their wedding, Minerva could not be more anxious. She drummed her fingers against her side like she did any other time she had lost control of her heart, and waiting to go down the aisle was definitely one of those times. As the distance between Minerva and her fiancé closed, the grin on each of their faces grew wider. Casper looked fairly different than he had all those years ago, but Minerva only saw the fourteen year old boy she fell in love with: his dirty blonde hair wasn't slicked back, it was still hanging negligently over one eye; he didn't have much muscle on his body, he was still a scrawny teenager; and the bags that had developed under his aqua eyes had vanished.

"You look beautiful, Minnie." Casper grasped her hand and led her up to the altar.

"I Casper,"

"I Casper," he repeated after the small, tufty-haired wizard.

"Take thee Minerva,"

"Take thee Minerva,"

"In sickness and in health, 'til death do we part."

"In sickness and in health, 'til death do we part."

Those words made her beam to a point where she felt her face may split in two. Eventually, remembering these words so vividly would turn her into the basket case she had become.

"Come on, Minnie, you can do this!"

The pain was unbearable. Tears ran down her cheeks. "Merlin," she shouted between horrified pants. "How big can this baby be?!"

"You're almost there, dear. Just a little more..." The healer said encouragingly. And within moments, Casper and Minerva McGonagall were holding their first child: a young girl named Francis Elizabeth. Minerva thought she was absolutely breathtaking; mostly because she resembled Casper in almost every way. Though she got the black hair gene, Francis got his piercing eyes.

"You're going to be trouble, aren't you?" Minerva giggled, tapping her daughter on the nose.

Casper chuckled along with her. "She's beautiful."

Eleven years later, little Francis made both her parents proud when she received her acceptance letter to Hogwarts.

"Mum, mummy look!"

As the pair of them inspected her letter, Casper entered the room. He leant heavily on the wall and flashed Minerva an address of his own. "Her letter wasn't the only thing in the post this morning."

"What do you mean? What's that in your hand?" He beckoned her to follow him out of the room. "Francis, I'll be back in a minute, okay sweetheart?" When she was sure they couldn't be overheard, Minerva started to panic. "What is it?"

"A war is beginning, Minerva." Ignoring the fact that her eyes went wide, he continued on. "You-Know-Who's finally gained the power we've been expecting. No one knows how serious this is going to get, but they need my help."

Instantly, tears welled up in her eyes. "You can't be serious."

"I have to do this, Minerva; I don't have a choice."

"I don't want to lose you..."

As the tears fell and his wife began to sob, Casper laid her head in his chest and stroked his hand through her hair. "You aren't going to lose me. I'm doing this for so we can be safe – so our daughter can live in a world where she doesn't have to check over her shoulder every spare minute."

"But..."

"I love you, and I won't let anything happen to either of us – I promise."

What Casper didn't know was that a wizard shouldn't make promises he has no control over keeping. As the war played out over a few months, Minerva's nerves grew until one morning; she received a letter in the post informing her that both Casper and Francis had been killed in their home by a group of Death Eaters.

The funeral was overwhelming. There were so many people there to see her family off and give her their condolences, but Minerva felt more alone than she ever had. Though her family died many, many years ago, just looking back on the event made her revert back to this feeling of fierce loneliness, regardless of the number of people sitting in the same room.

"Professor?"

"Yes?" Minerva looked up from the point of her quill to see Hermione standing over her.

The young witch looked hesitant in approaching her. "I've finished my assignment."

"You can leave it here on the desk, Miss Granger." Hermione nodded, stepped back and left Minerva once more to her thoughts about the perfect man, the wonderful life they had, and the dry tip of her quill wavering as she balanced it between her two fingers.


End file.
